I think I remember that day. An ordinary afternoon. Groceries at the store next to the hardware shop and a drive home. There was nothing remarkable about any of it.
"Malcolm came out of the store and smelled it too," Alex continues. "We watched you drive away. Didn't know what to do."
"But Finn did," I say. Because of course Finn did.
Alex's mouth curves slightly. "Finn pulled Ragon's pack files that night through his registry access. Found out about Marie's incoming transfer. That your pack had been visiting their scent match at the registry for two months. We thought you were about to be replaced." He turns the mug in his hands. "Finn found your history. That your first pack sent you back for their match. We thought it was about to happen again."
The matter-of-fact way he says it doesn't soften it. My first pack. The clinical assessment. The cold hallway and the woman with the file who looked at me like I was a problem being reassigned to her.
"They weren't sending me back though."
He takes a deep breath. "I know. Finn dug deeper but he couldn't find any paperwork indicating you were going to be returned. We figured out Ragon was going to try to keep you both. Two omegas in a pack isn't unheard of and it can even work. But not like that. Not when they’re bringing a scent match into the home of a long term, established but unclaimed omega. We knew it wouldn't work just from the fact that Ragon didn't bother to introduce you to Mariebeforehe brought her in. He just expected you to follow orders without any kind of preparation."
"So you called Chase," I say.
"We needed someone with reach. Chase came over, we laid everything out for him, and he started an investigation process right there. Just in case."
I nod slowly.
"He also sent someone in," Alex says. "Into your pack. To watch and report back."
I swallow hard, my eyes widening. "Jasper,” I whisper.
Alex looks at me. "Jasper."
I sit with it.
Jasper. Who always seemed to exist slightly apart from everything. Who gave me sympathetic looks and then looked away. Who kept a careful distance I always attributed to shyness or an introverted nature. He was always just out of reach, and I thought it meant he didn't care.
"He was reporting to Chase," I say.
"Yes. All of us, really. His reports were cautious at first. Then they started getting worse. That’s why we bought the house next door. We wanted to keep an eye on you. To be there if you needed a place to go, even if just for a little while." His voice sharpens. "By the time Ragon destroyed your nest, Jasper was pushing Chase hard to move faster. He called Arden in to help."
The threads connect. All of them. Arden appearing in my life with his careful questions. I knew Jasper called him, that was never a secret. But Chase showing up at the gym that day, all easy charm and registry badge hidden. I’m certain now Finn told him I’d be there. That wasn't a coincidence. Or how Alex's pack sometimes seemed to already know things about me before I told them.
"When Chase found me at the zoo that day... the day I met him. It wasn't an accident was it?"
"No. Jasper told him you’d all be there."
"Why did he ask to take me in his pack? Wasn't he just trying to get me out?" I pause and really think about it. "He needed me tosayI wanted out."
Alex nods once. "Without your consent he couldn't touch it. The registry needed to know youwantedout before they’d really listen to him.”
"But I couldn't say it."
Of course I couldn't. Five years in a pack rewires you in a way that’s deeper than thought. The proximity, the scent, the constant low-grade pull toward your alphas—it stops being want and becomes closer to oxygen. You don't leave because leaving feels like suffocating. Even when they're hurting you. Even when you know.
His fingers tighten around his mug.
"At the gym," I say, pieces clicking into place, "when he repeated his offer..."
Alex's jaw clenches visibly.
"He thought you might be ready by then. You weren't."
"And that brings me to what happened next."
A sigh escapes him. "I can guess what you're about to ask."
